TV shows you most recently finished watching

Very entertaining although I wanted to be more surprised by the ending. Can't say much more as it would be a spoiler.

American Rust - (Showtime) This is a very slow moving drama that is based around a murder and Jeff Daniels plays an intriguing character that gets way too involved in trying to protect the accused.  There are a lot of scenes that are devoted to character building, but in this case, it's way too much.  The same story could have been told a lot better in 5 episodes making everything a lot tighter.  Yes there are some scenes that remain with you for a long time, some effective, others you would rather forget.  It's dark, depressing and hard to watch, but something keeps you there once you start watching.  It might be the hope that things will happen, and some things do, but a lot of time passes between any sort of payoffs, good or bad.  The show tries to be pensive and provoke thought about the state that lower-class Americans are in, but a lot of the acting is lacking in emotion.  At times I found myself wishing scenes would hurry and get over, and that's not a good thing in this case.  There is good and bad here, but it's mostly pretty blah.  And, there is no real "who-done-it" here because you know fairly early on what happened and who did it.  There are very few bright spots to this real downer of a series.  5/10

We recently watched the first movie in the third season of the French crime TV-series "Les Rivières pourpres" ("The Purple Rivers"); we watched it in the original French.

In this episode a bacteriologist creates a mutation of the pest bacillus that only he has an antidote against and uses it to kill certain cops, and the investigators have to find out who is behind this and why he kills them. The series is pretty dark and a French equivalent to Nordic Noir. 7/10.

I presume a very expensive Apple sci-fi series that barely managed to get off the ground. I love Lee Pace as an actor, suitably very arrogant as 'Empire' the clone dynasty , and this made it watchable as much as anything. Overall not bad and certainly visually spectacular but not as engaging as, say, The Expanse drama wise. Has the potential to get better (Season 2) has been commissioned. 7/10

Sad to see this series finish . Billy Bob Thornton brings his considerable acting clout to always engaging storylines. He is the 'David', a retired lawyer hired to take on massive corporations trying to cover up their evil doings. 9/10.

Mr Corman S1  

Something different , written by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who also takes the lead role of a 30 something school teacher with anxiety issues. I found it engaging although the lead character is not that lovable or always that nice. However the very varied and interesting supporting cast helps elevate it. Maybe not one of Apple TV's best efforts but not a flop necessarily. 6/10

not a really bad 1950's B movie but a very interesting dramatisation of actual events that happened in hospitals in the USA between 2012-2017. A rogue doctor (played extremely well by Joshua Jackson) is pursued by a couple of surgeons (played by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin). Just about the most addictive thing I've watched for a while. 9.5/10.